This document provides best practices for building successful free-to-play apps on Android. It discusses acquisition through rewarded installs and video ads. For retention, it recommends using social sharing, daily rewards, challenges and quests. For monetization, it suggests direct in-app purchases, offerwalls, and highlighted special offers. Metrics and iteration are also emphasized to test small changes and measure their impact on key metrics like DAUs and ARPDAU. The overall message is that acquisition requires optimizing the new user experience, retention benefits from ongoing incentives and engagement, and monetization works best with testing and a variety of revenue models.

1. Building Successful
Free-to-Play Apps on Android

2. Agenda
• Introduction to Tapjoy
• Android Market Stats
• Acquisition
• Retention
• Monetization

3. About Tapjoy
• Founded 2007
• Headquarters San Francisco
• Offices in the US, Europe and
Asia
• Reach 600+ million mobile
consumers on
Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7
& HTML5
• Funding $70.5 million from
• J.P. Morgan Asset Management
• Rho Ventures
• North Bridge Venture Partners
• InterWest Partners
• D.E. Shaw Ventures

4. Recent Recognition
Tapjoy recognized among
the world‘s Most Innovative
Companies by Fast
Company
World’s Most
#27 Innovative Company
# Most Innovative in
1 Gaming
# Most Innovative in
2 Mobile

5. Tapjoy Value Exchange
How it Works:
Vivian needs more Pet Points to hire another employee in Pretty Pet Salon.
She can earn Pet Points by
She can buy Pet Points
engaging with ads in Tapjoy‘s
with real money.
Marketplace.

6. Power of Choice
Vivian CHOOSES to watch
The Avengers trailer and earns 59 Pet
Points.

7. Tapjoy Ad Units
Standard Banners
Offerwall Full Screen
Banners In-App Video

8. Android Market

9. Android continues to grow
Android DAU’s continue to climb on the Tapjoy Network
App traffic
spikes up
on
weekends

10. Free-to-play apps are dominating
Revenue from Top Grossing iOS Apps
…and the future is even brighter!
January 2011
Projected In-App Purchase
39% Paid Revenue (in Billions)*
6.00
61%
Freemiu 5.00 4.80
m
4.00
Freemium revenue and distribution has increased 3.00
significantly over the last year, and continues to grow. 2.10
2.00
June 2011
1.00
35% Paid -
2011 2016 (Projected)
65%
Freemiu
m *Juniper Research – The Mobile Games Briefing 2011-2016

11. Top Grossing Apps
There is
only ONE
paid app in
the Top 25
Grossing
Android
apps!
96% of the
Top 25
Grossing
Android
apps are
free-to-play

12. Free-to-Play: It’s not just for games

13. Acquisition
A R M

14. A R M
Mobile Acquisition Channels
How are developers promoting free-to-play apps?
• Rewarded installs • Organic discovery (top
• Non-rewarded installs charts, search, word of mouth, etc.)
• Video ads
• Cross promotion
• Social discovery (FB, Twitter, etc.)

15. A R M
The Holy Grail – Getting Featured on
Google Play

16. A R M
The Holy Grail – Getting Featured on
Google Play
Sessions New Users DAU’s ARPDAU
200,000 $.05
160,000 $.04
120,000 $.03
Featured!
80,000 $.02
40,000 $.01
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17. A R M
Google Play Featured Process
1
Suggest an app into the wall of suggestions:
http://goo.gl/mod/DfIv
2 People vote on the apps that are on the wall of
suggestions
3
The apps with the most positive votes are reviewed
every Friday by Google‘s Android Develop Relations
team (2pm PT on ―Hangouts‖):
http://www.youtube.com/user/androiddevelopers
4
The apps they like most are passed on to Google
Play‘s editorial team to be considered for featured /
staff picks placement on Google Play

18. A R M
New User Flow
The new user flow is one of the most important parts of a
successful game
• Optimize the download
• Great tutorial You have 30 seconds to
• Use clear directions hook your users and 5
min to teach them. The
• Give rewards
goal is to shoot for 70%
• Get the user playing as tutorial completion rate.
soon as you can

19. A R M
Optimize the Download
Tapjoy Network Android Conversion Rate:
(clicks to installs)
Total Conversion
Megabytes Rate (CVR)
0-50 50-60%
50-100 30-45%
100+ 14-20%
The smaller the file,
the better the CVR.

20. A R M
Start off Simple
Take Users by the Hand and Guide Them Into
the App
During the first 30 seconds put the user on rails, don‘t let them get lost
• This is your chance to take an uncertain user and create an engaged
user
• You can‘t display everything, show off your core loop and build from
there
Call to action Use arrows Gray out Show off Reward/ Get ‗em playing
the screen the store congratulate
them early

21. A R M
Use Clear Directions
How to do it right Use arrows
Highlight where
you want the
users attention
Gray out areas
that don‘t
matter now
Give
simple
info

22. Retention
A R M

23. A R M
Social Channels
Take advantage of
free social channels
• Most social networks offer
free API‘s and SDK‘s
• Warning: Forcing a
connection to a social
network can cause a large
drop-off in new user
conversion, so it‘s best to
make social connections
optional
• Orange‘s TV Check app saw a
75% drop off when the app
forced users to connect with FB

24. A R M
Social Channels
Sometimes it‘s better to create your own social
layer
Surface social
activity to
users early on

25. A R M
Incentivize friend invites
Reward users
for inviting their
friends

26. A R M
Daily Rewards
Give your users a reward
for coming back every
day
• In the later days of the reward
cycle give the users bigger or
exclusive rewards
• Show them what they earned
and also show them what is
coming up

27. A R M
Daily reward combined with chance
mechanic

28. A R M
App Re-engagement
Remind them to keep coming back
Notifications
Appointment
Mechanics

29. A R M
Use Challenges / Quests to keep
users on track

30. 1-
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New Users
1-
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DAU’s
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Quests really work
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ARPDAU
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Quests/Achievements added.
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M

31. Monetization
A R M

32. A R M
Mobile Revenue Channels
Direct Pay Alt Pay
In app purchase through Google Wallet Allowing users to engage with advertising
in exchange for virtual currency
Direct Pay Alt Pay — Alt Pay — Top: Display A
Offerwalls Bottom: Featured Ad

33. A R M
Glu Earnings – Direct and Alt Pay
monetization

34. A R M
Featured Item Specials
Highlight a limited-time featured item when users log in
• Items on the home page will have 150% + sales increase
• Rotate content often
• Great place for seasonal items
Today Only Seasonal Sale

35. A R M
Create Clear Virtual Goods Markets
Markets and Inventory
• Do - Make the buttons large and easy to tap.
• Do - Whenever possible use art and icons to direct the player, they look good and are
universal.
• Don’t - use small icons and text.
• Don’t - make your users scroll through long item lists.
Do Don’t

36. A R M
Sales and special offers
Make your users feel like they are getting a good deal
• Your purchase screen should be clean and easy to navigate
• Tell the users how much extra cool stuff they get
• Use incentives to encourage them to buy higher priced packages
• Use icons to make bigger packages look more impressive
• Users scroll through long item lists.

37. A R M
Iteration and Metrics AR
One of the advantages to the Android platform is
the ability to iterate quickly
• Choose a region you want to use as your test group (ex. Canada)
• Make changes based on metrics
• Review data on the changes, update and repeat
• Keep updating your app with new content
Small Changes can Make a Huge Difference
55,000
ARPDAU New Users DAU’s Sessions
44,000
33,000
22,000
11,000
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38. Summary

39. Best Practices For:
Acquisition
A • Choose the right channels for acquisition
• Hold the user‘s hand through the first experiences of the app
• Keep it clear and simple
Retention
R
• Use social channels and incentivize sharing
• Offer daily rewards
• Keep users engaged by implementing quests and
achievements
M Monetization
• Make the most of your monetization by adding alt pay
• Highlight special offers and items to drive purchase behavior
• Frequently test and measure new features within a segment of
your users, and roll out successful changes to the full audience

40. Thank you
chris@tapjoy.com